Intersecting Lives
by UnheardAmateurWriter
Summary: In a way, they are connected. There's always someone-something- that binds them together.
1. Pokey Minch

Giygas may have been defeated, but sometimes Ness had to wonder where his old friend and next door neighbour Pokey Minch had run off to. He never saw him again after he fled from battle when Giygas had become unstable, those taunts of his being the last thing he had ever heard from the boy. Pokey may have been a dick, but he had also been a bit misunderstood. Ness didn't truly get why Pokey had taunted him and turned to Giygas-the supposed alien that was going to destroy him and take over Earth!

Ness had thought about how Giygas knew he was the 'chosen one' and why he had come to conquer Earth. He had chalked the first up to the whole being psychic powers thing, but the latter he wasn't so sure. Things coming to conquer Earth and fighting a chosen hero or four was something out of a TV show or movie! Then again, there was the story of Ninten. The odd-named boy who had gone out one day after a poltergeist hit his house and ended up fighting Giygas himself. There were other details, but sources were scarce by the day and not all were reliable.

ANYWAY, back to Pokey, Ness hadn't realised just how jealous the boy had been of him. He had been fragile and childish. Probably things that led him to be manipulated by Giygas to completely turn against him. Now Pokey was gone and the Minch household was more chaotic than ever. Just where had he gone? Would he ever come back?

Ness would never know what happened to Pokey Minch, but a boy named Lucas would. In the far future way past his time on the Nowhere Islands, Pokey would appear again. Old, but not much wiser than he was before. Still mentally a child, he tried to conquer the Nowhere Islands. Ness would never know the mementos that Pokey-now calling himself Porky- kept. The boy named Lucas would see them, but not fully understand the meanings behind them. He would see shots of Ness and his friends projected on a theatre screen, but he would never understand everything that they represented.

It was because of Ness that Pokey had eventually ended up here. It was because of Pokey that he had ended up here. Nothing ever worked out for Pokey, and it never would. Now he sits, alone, in a capsule all by himself, doomed to insanity and immortality for all eternity. Not even death would claim him. What a horrible life this boy has lived. All he wanted was something better than what he had, but his burning jealousy had been his downfall.


	2. Be Careful of What You Ask for

Lucas was starting to think maybe that Ness shouldn't have let him in his kitchen. Okay, that's a lie. Lucas _knew _that Ness shouldn't have let him in his kitchen. To be fair, Lucas did try to make something other than omelets, but the idiot had insisted that he prepare something while he was out. That turned out to be a bad move (as it usually would be) as Lucas was not gifted or skilled in the art of cooking. He could make a decent omelet, sure, but attempts at making anything else, more often than not, went up in literal flames.

Unfortunately, as previously stated, Lucas did not make any omelets. He was debatably stupid enough to try to make something else. Wait, why was this debatable? Uh… reasoning? Yeah, yeah! That's totally what it is! See, Ness was being an asshole and not listening to him when he was reminding him that he couldn't cook worth shit. Yes, _reminding _him. Ness had heard the stories and seen examples of so called "food" that Lucas had made that had been lucky enough to escape the scorching fires of presumably Hell. So how in God's name did he forget?

Lucas wasn't quite sure how Ness could have forgotten, but Ness' refutations against all of his protests pissed him off. How dare he forget something so important, and then proceed to disrespect him by telling him to get in the kitchen, and then leave with that little smile that may have implied that he expected him to make omelets, but said he could make whatever? Really, does he think he's stupid?

Okay, cut the crap before it goes any farther. Like Lucas would intentionally use his lack of skill to set his boyfriend's kitchen on fire. That would just be stupid and over doing it. In fact, there was never any malicious intent at all. He had just wanted to surprise him.

Surprise him with decent cooking.

Anyway, well actually no, that's very relevant. While Lucas's motivations for wanting to do so may be a bit unclear, hope and perseverance had become his leaders. They encouraged him as he fought a mighty battle with his phone and cheered in his victory as he was finally able to ask a search engine on how to create the almighty steak. Its divine holiness would cause people to tear up just from being in its presence. It would have to be consecrated; truly, a new mark in the Steak Religion. Ness would be proud.

Confidence had joined the party afterword and Lucas looked at several different results with brevity. Progress was made. Things had been going well.

"Had" is the keyword. As present tense settles down in its relationship counseling with past tense, Lucas wonders where in hell he went wrong. "I followed all the directions. How does this happen?"

It was true. He had been pretty faithful to the directions. Or at least, that's what he thinks. Then again, there was always that ever growing sense of doubt that threatened to be masked by the curtain of anxiety-induced panic.

Lucas ran a hand through his hair as he quickly skimmed the paragraphs of directions on his phone, franticly searching for what he did wrong. Perhaps he should have waited to do this action, however, as smoke intoxicated the air.

The fire wasn't that bad. It hadn't spread anywhere besides the frying pan. Yet.

Lucas took one glance at the fire before grappling for a glass of some kind. There wasn't any glass to grapple so he resorted to hurriedly walking over to a cabinet and opening it. Getting distracted once again by the directional text on his phone, he was slow to retrieve the first glass the eye could see.

He turned around, already done skimming the text again. Jeez, what was that, Mach 2? Nobody really knows, but what people do know, is that Lucas is in quite the peril. It could only get worse from here, seeing as how Lucas was taking his damn sweet time in quenching the inferno that was feeding off seconds, famished for destruction.

Seriously, how hadn't he started coughing from the all the smoke yet? Oh wait, there he goes. That is most definitely not a pleasant taste.

Looking towards the main light source of the room, Lucas promptly paled at the sight before him. The wooden shelves above the stove had caught fire.

"Shit," he swore as he scrambled for the kitchen sink. He hit the cold water and for about 15 seconds he stood there, thoughts starting to race in his mind. Smoke entered his lungs again and he coughed once more. It was only at this moment that he realised that the glass was still in his hand.

He slams the glass into the sink, a loud _clank _resonating from it. The odd decibel at which was created hardly registered to the human ear. The sound of crackling and running water deafened the pitch and Lucas was overcome with a sense of doubt.

'_This is just a simple glass. What if I can't put the fire out fast enough? I don't want to have to call the fire department, again.' _Thoughts like this continued to play, almost like a movie.

Lucas couldn't let this internal play distract him, though. Grabbing the glass, Lucas, with formidable speed, threw the water at the fire. The burning flames seemed to recoil, hissing at the water's deadly touch.

Lucas knew what he had to do.

Returning the glass to refill, he slid over to the cabinet and grabbed several more glasses. Arming his troops, Lucas ran to the front lines. In two's his soldiers fought the scorching inferno, water going everywhere.

Soon, the flames of disaster were losing the battle, marks littering the battlefield. Lucas didn't slow down, though. He didn't tire until his victory was concrete. Good thing he didn't as he could have missed the fact that the stove was still on and the fire could have had backup.

In almost a dramatic fashion, Lucas slid onto the floor, panting. Wiping his brow, he sighed in relief, happy that this hadn't gotten any worse. At least he had won. He had won this battle and that was all that mattered.

Arms aching, Lucas pushed himself up off the floor. He still has to survey the aftermath.

Well, there was water everywhere, that's for sure.

Grabbing the paper towels, Lucas was proud of himself. He had managed to put the fire out and he hadn't let any doubt get the best of him. Still, just how did he burn the steak in the first place? That part still confused him, but it must have been _something_ for it to go up in flames.

There is still quite a bit of smoke in the air, and Lucas figures that it will clear up quickly when he throws this crisp away. Picking up the frying pan, he makes his way towards the garbage can. Opening it, he attempts to dump the deceased steak into it. It doesn't move. He then tries to scrap off the damn thing and eventually it plops into the garbage, smoke wafting from it.

After almost wheezing from that, Lucas sets the frying pan in the sink with all the glasses he used to fight. He should probably turn the water faucet back on.

Contemplating whether he should wipe up the water first or turn on the cold water, Lucas wasted about a minute or two he could have used doing one or both of those things. His decision was only made by the sound of someone opening and closing the door.

Water poured from the faucet and hit the glasses and frying pan, a loud noise and steam resulting from it. Lucas instantly jumped back, seeming surprised. His reaction was a bit silly, he admitted to himself. Still, after the ordeal he just went through…

Unfortunately, his ordeal wasn't over quite yet. Here's why: even though he had put out the fire, the smoke hadn't yet cleared. There was also the whole Ness factor. Ness has a reflex where he can tear up easily in the presence of smoke. That would only distract him so long before he would be able to kill him.

That was the main thought going through Lucas' mind as Ness came into the kitchen, already wiping at his eyes. _'Ness is going to kill me.'_

This could have been a great place to perhaps end a chapter; however, there is no part two of this scenario. Why wait an agonising amount of time for a conclusion when a conclusion can be viewed right now?

Ahem, Lucas stood in place and watched as Ness blinked. An awkward, sheepish smile was already making its home on Lucas' face, Ness taking in the state of his kitchen.

He seemed to be in some sort of awe. "What…" He repeated that a couple times before groping for a full sentence. "What did you do?" The calmness of that question is what intimated Lucas the most.

"Err…uh…the food may have caught fire a little…"

"Oh my God," Ness said, wiping his eyes again.

"At least I was able to put it out this time."

"This time?!" Ness looked perplexed. "I thought for sure…!"

"For sure, what?"

"That…never mind, it's stupid."

"What's stupid, your assumption that I was just going to make omelets?"

Ness was silent for a moment. "Well, I don't think I was _wrong _for doing so, but I guess it wasn't the smartest decision."

Was that a contradiction? "Sometimes I swear you think I'm stupid." This sudden fight in him struck Lucas as odd, although he pretty much had a good reason for it.

"You can be sometimes…" Ness muttered.

"I feel the same about you, to be honest."

Great, now everything is awkward. Is a fight between these two actually going to happen?

"What did you try to make, anyway?"

"Steak, I had wanted to surprise you."

"I don't always eat steak, y'know."

"Are you still crying?"

"Shut up! There's still a lot of smoke around! This is your fault."

"It's your fault for leaving me unsupervised."

"You're old enough. I thought I could trust you." Joking tone or not, that last sentence bothered the two of them. Trust. Lucas couldn't really blame Ness for that, but how could he accept other people trusting him when he couldn't even trust himself for this type of thing?

"I guess we'll need to work on that, then." Lucas said.

Ness nodded. "I'm still confused, though."

"About what?"

"About how you can make a good omelet and absolutely destroy everything else!" Perplexity was back, he really was stumped on how this was even remotely possible.

Lucas shrugged. "Sometimes I wonder that, too. It seems it may be one of the many wonders of life."

"I don't know why, but it feels odd to hear you say that. Anyway, I suppose we should clean my kitchen now?"

Oh yeah, that was a thing. "Probably, I was going to get to that." As Ness moved towards where the paper towels were, Lucas added, "This went better than I thought it was going to go."

"What do you mean? How so?"

"I thought you were going to kill me."

"I will kill you if you don't start moving."

"…I'm really sorry about your kitchen, Ness."

"You will be sorry if I have to end up replacing those shelves."

Lucas laughed. Ness probably would have his head. Maybe when this was over he could get him to apologise to him about not listening to him. Yeah, that seemed like a good idea.

…

"I think I know what I did wrong."

"What?"

"I think I cooked it at too high of a temperature."

"Then how did…? Nope, never mind. I don't think I want to know."

"Me neither, actually."

"I worry about you, Lucas."

"I do too, Ness. I really do."


End file.
